How to join the elite 1%

In the longevity world it is easy to get the impression that real progress only starts when we reach for the most advanced tools: cellular therapies, peptides, high-end supplements, cutting-edge biological diagnostics or experimental interventions. It is tempting – and at the same time very misleading.

The truth is that most people do not meet even the basic criteria of a healthy lifestyle, and it is those fundamentals that have the greatest impact on our longevity.

So if you are looking for an edge, you do not have to start with advanced methods at all. Start where only a tiny fraction of society actually finishes: with the foundations.

One of the clearest studies in this area — the analysis by Li et al. (Harvard, NHS, HPFS, NHANES) — assessed the lifestyle of millions of Americans across five key domains: BMI, diet, physical activity, alcohol and smoking. Each of them is scored from 1 to 5, where “5” means the most optimal value.

The maximum score of 25/25 represents a person who, in practice, follows all the foundations of a healthy lifestyle at the highest possible level.

How many people achieve such a result?

Only 0.29% of the population.

This is not a typo. Fewer than 1 in 300 people.

In practice this means that less than 1% of people in the world truly follow the foundations of health in a consistent and complete way.

The foundations matter so much because they generate the highest return on investment. In the same Li et al. study, it was shown that following five basic lifestyle habits increases life expectancy:

• by 14 years in women,
• by 12 years in men.

No single pharmacological, supplement-based or technological intervention has such a proven effect. And certainly not when the foundations are neglected.

When we talk about “foundations”, we do not mean a vague sense of “I eat fairly healthy and try to move”. We mean a coherent, measurable set of behaviours, such as:

• 7.5–8.5 hours of sleep every night,
• a stable circadian rhythm,
• no smoking,
• minimal alcohol intake,
• a minimally processed diet, rich in fibre and micronutrients,
• BMI within the healthy range,
• 150–300 minutes of weekly activity + regular strength training,
• low levels of chronic stress,
• up-to-date preventive screenings.

This is the “game” in which the “elite 1%” actually participate. People who truly do everything that science recognises as the foundation of health – not occasionally, but consistently, day after day.

Very often, especially among new longevity enthusiasts, I see a phenomenon that I call “longevity overkill”.

People invest enormous amounts of money and time in epigenetic tests, supplement NAD+, take rapamycin or peptides, but at the same time:

• sleep 6 hours,
• eat irregularly and highly processed food,
• have catastrophic stress levels,
• hardly move at all,
• skip preventive screenings.

Advanced techniques do not compensate for the lack of basics. In health, you cannot “cheat the system”.

And yet many people start their “longevity journey” exactly there, skipping the things that account for 80% of the results.

The time for advanced steps will come — and they really can deliver phenomenal results. We already see that regenerative medicine, cellular therapies, ageing modulators, gene editing and advanced pharmacology are opening doors to possibilities that a decade ago were pure fantasy.

In addition, with the breakthroughs on the horizon — in synthetic biology, cellular reprogramming, mitochondrial therapy, proteostasis and AI-driven medicine — we will likely achieve things that today seem unimaginable.

Yet even the most groundbreaking technologies will not work optimally if the foundations are neglected. It is the basics that determine whether the body is capable of using the potential of modern interventions.

Without them, the effects will be weaker, shorter-lived or unstable.

That is why advanced actions only make sense once you have built a solid base. The foundations are not a “beginner stage”. They are a prerequisite that allows you to fully benefit from the coming revolution in human biology.

Before you start thinking about more advanced interventions, set yourself a first goal that is ambitious but realistic:

Join the elite 1% of people who have truly mastered the foundations of a healthy lifestyle.